Viviane N'Dour
It's a more laid-back, smooth set this week, with a special focus on Senegalese singer Viviane N'Dour. Frequently referred to as simply Viviane, she's one of Senegal's biggest stars, and while her music might broadly be categorized as R&B, it's so much more than that: she mixes up R&B, reggae, hip hop and mbalax (Senegalese pop) to create a sound entirely of her own.
Regular listeners might be familiar with Taximan, her collaboration with Senegalese rapper Fou Malade which is a long-standing Friday Ripple favourite. This week we look at Viviane's work in more detail. It's not just her music that's eclectic: she has an amazing range of vocal styles, from soul to rap to the ragga toasting heard on the Bob Marley cover Lively Up Yourself.
JUKEBOX: Friday Ripple 2.10.09Viviane N'Dour is an artist who can cover a song and make it entirely her own: check out Obibolo, a reworking of 50 Cent's P.I.M.P. with socially-conscious Malian rap crew Tata Pound. A more curious choice is her Shama Plus, a mbalax cover of Shama Lama Ding Dong, the novelty soul song by Otis Day & The Nights made popular by the 1978 American comedy film National Lampoon's Animal House.
Since we've mentioned R&B, it's worth making a few observations on the origins of that particular musical term. Nowadays, "R&B" is used to define a style of pop music which draws primarily from soul, disco, funk and hip hop. But R&B is short for "rhythm and blues" - perhaps a strange term for a contemporary music whose main roots are not most obviously in blues.
In fact, the phrase "rhythm and blues" has been around since the late 1940s, when the American record industry developed the term as a separate category for music made by and for African-Americans. Blues rock, soul and funk have all been classified as "R&B" in America at some point, so we're using the term somewhat reluctantly here: while it's a widely-accepted description for contemporary music rooted in soul, funk and disco, for most of its lifetime this term has been as much of a racial category as a musical one.
Here in the Czech Republic, a lot of record shops file hip hop and R&B albums under the title "Black Music". Although it should be said that this is a rather broad (and somewhat racist-sounding) way to categorise music, it's worth pointing out that "R&B" means essentially the same thing.
Of course, the Friday Ripple makes a point of not separating music by categories, so in this week's show you'll also find the shimmering shoegaze of Finland's Husky Rescue, the electro-folk-dub of Mozambique's 340ml, the electro-reggae-rock of America's Matisyah, and the smooth nu-jazz of Germany's Jazzanova.
As ever, alternative music from everywhere - streaming now on the Radio Wave Jukebox under Friday Ripple > 2.10.09.
Playlist:
Viviane N'Dour feat. Fou Malade - Taximan (Jololi)
Zoro & Tim Parr - Gal of I Dream (African Dope)
Six Foot - Anwudi (Out Here Records)
Viviane N'Dour feat. King Massassi & Tata Pound - Obibolo (Jololi)
Viviane N'Dour - Goor Fit (Jololi)
Matisyahu - We Will Walk (Epic Records)
Bisso Na Bisso feat. Sizzla - Meme Combat (V2 Music France)
Joan As Police Woman - She Watch Channel Zero (Reveal Records)
Husky Rescue - My Home Ghost (Catskills)
340ml - Fairy Tales (Sheer)
Amadou & Mariam - Ce N'est Pas Bon (Honest Jon's)
Miss Frenchie vs Peaches vs The Clash - F*** 'em Boyo (self-released)
Marlena Shaw - California Soul (Diplo/Mad Decent remix) (Verve)
Gang Gang Dance - House Jam (The Social Registry)
Casiotone For The Painfully Alone feat. Jenny Herbinson - Lesley Gore On
The T.A.M.I. Show (Tomlab)
Viviane N'Dour w Frankie Paul - Stress/Lively Up Yourself (Jololi)
J.Period & K'naan - Stir It Up (Messengers Remix) (self-released)
Dan Boadi - Money is the Root of Evil (Nascente)
Mokobe feat. Viviane N'Dour - Safari (Jive / Sbme Europe)
Jamie Lidell - Another Day (Warp Records)
Jazzanova feat. Ben Westbeech - I Can See (Sonar Kollektiv)
The Very Best - Dinosaur On The Ark (Green Owl)
Abdullah Ibrahim - Calypso Minor (DJ Explizit Remix)
Viviane N'Dour - Shama Plus (Jololi)
